At the finish line - the Mayor Geisel and Christian Prudhomme look forward to the start of the Grand Départ Düsseldorf 2017

The SPONSORS Business Summit - SPOBIS - sports business congress in Europe is taking place on 30 and 31 January in Düsseldorf. Christian Prudhomme, Director of the Tour de France, is also in Düsseldorf on the occasion of the SPOBIS and today (30 January), together with the Mayor Thomas Geisel, he took the opportunity to take a look at the finish line of the 1st stage of the Grand Départ on Rotterdamer Straße close to the Congress Centre Düsseldorf.

On Saturday, 1 July, the Tour de France 2017 starts with the individual time trials over 13 kilometres through the city of Düsseldorf. The cyclists start at the Düsseldorf trade fair and ride along Rheinufer next to the Rhine. They pass the cultural centre Ehrenhof and sprint over Oberkassel bridge into Oberkassel on the left bank of the Rhine. With a view of the Rhine Tower and the state government NRWLandtag they then ride back over the Rheinknie bridge, past the Media Harbour in the direction of the inner city. The race for the best time continues at the famous shopping mile Königsallee. At the end of the "Kö" the route passes the Triton fountain and switches to Heinrich-Heine-Allee, past the Deutsche Oper (opera house) and back to Rheinufer. The following home straight of 3.3 km along the Rhine takes them back to the trade fair. In the evening, the concert "Tour de France - 3 D" by the electric pioneers KRAFTWERK is to be held in Ehrenhof, for which ticket sales started today.

The 2nd stage on Sunday, 2 July will take the cyclists from Düsseldorf to Liège in Belgium.